Document: Inspector should have checked McGuire problems

Belltown building slated for demolition

Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The McGuire Apartments building in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood is seen on Tuesday.

The McGuire Apartments building in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood is seen on Tuesday.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo/seattlepi.com

Document: Inspector should have checked McGuire problems

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The inspector who oversaw construction of the soon-to-be demolished McGuire Apartments in Belltown should have more closely monitored the faulty work blamed for the building's planned demise, according to city records.

The firm, however, says the work in question was not within the scope of what it was supposed to do.

Only nine years old, the 25-story tower at Second Avenue and Wall Street needs to be demolished, according to the owners, because the cost to repair structural defects would exceed the building's value. It's now the center of a multi-million dollar lawsuit. All of the building's tenants, including a handful of businesses on the ground floor, have been told to find new homes.

The building's most serious defect involves post-tensioned steel cables embedded in the building's concrete slabs. The cables are corroding because the ends weren't properly treated with a rust-proof coating after they were tightened and trimmed, nor was a pocket in the edge of the concrete sealed with non-shrink grout, as specified, which allowed water to seep in.

City records show officials with the Department of Planning and Development met with the contractor, McCarthy Building Companies of St. Louis, Mo., and the special on-site inspector, Mayes Testing Engineers of Lynnwood, prior to construction. The firms were directed to follow specific guidelines in placing the steel cables and ensuring the ends were properly treated afterward.

A document from a 1999 pre-construction meeting -- nine days before the concrete work began -- lays out the city's expectations for the special inspector, specifically stating that "strand ends should be protected and blockouts patched by specified methods and with specified materials, and verified by inspector within one week of receiving approval to cut the strands."

"I think what this document shows is that Mayes was informed by the city that the cable ends needed to be treated and the grout pockets properly sealed," said Assistant City Attorney Patrick Downs, who is monitoring the review for the City Attorney's office.

In 1996, the city's Department of Planning and Development's director established an agency rule specifying what's required of special inspections. The rule says they "will be considered complete after the special inspector has verified that the strands have been properly cut off; verified that the ends have been protected and that the blockouts have been grouted per the plans and specifications; and acceptance has been received by the building official."

But Mayes President Mike Mayes said in a statement two weeks ago that while the firm had inspected the placement and stressing of all post-tension cables, the faulty grouting and rust-proofing work was not within the scope of his firm's inspection.

On Tuesday, Mayes released a second statement to seattlepi.com, clarifying the company's prior remarks.

"When we said the inspection of rust inhibitors and patching was not part of our scope of inspection on this project, we should have been clearer," the statement said. "We did verify the placement and tensioning of the cables, and verified that the post-tension cables were cut and patched within seven days."

But, he said, the building code "did not -- and still does not -- require inspection of grouting and coating of cable terminations."

"In fact, when the building was constructed, contractors were not required to notify or provide access to inspectors when grouting and coating of cable terminations was performed," Mayes said. "All the engineering reports show that the contractor failed to apply a rust inhibitor, and to use the appropriate grout, two very basic steps that most would assume would happen."

Bryan Stevens, a spokesman for the Department of Planning and Development, said the director's rule was intended to clarify the building code.

The purpose of the pre-construction meeting is to identify inspection requirements of the project. The Dec. 1, 1999 meeting was attended by a city plan examiner, representatives from McCarthy, the structural engineer of record and special inspectors employed with Mayes.

Special third-party inspectors are required by the city to be on site for steel and concrete construction. Owners must appoint and pay for them, but the selection is subject to city approval. An inspector must be certified with the Washington Association of Building Officials, said Stevens, the DPD spokesman.

The inspector reports regularly to the city and if they see a problem, they notify the city. Violations can result in a stop-work order by the city.

DPD, which reviewed its voluminous file on the McGuire high-rise, including inspection reports, found no reports warning of trouble or shoddy work.

"There were no issues noted in the report that would have called attention to any sort of issues on the post-tensioning system," Stevens said.

Mayes is one of the largest and best-known providers of construction quality assurance services in the Pacific Northwest, according to the firm's website. The firm has worked on projects including the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Seattle and the new Escala Condominiums, as well as government projects such as work on Bellevue City Hall and renovations at the state capitol building in Olympia, according to the website.

"They have been a reputable agency working with Seattle for a number of years and we haven't had any problems like this with Mayes or any other special inspection agencies. This is pretty unique," Stevens said.

The building's owners, Carpenter Tower, LLC, have sued McCarthy and the building's architect, Hewitt Architects, alleging gross negligence, failing to meet professional standards, negligent misrepresentation, and breach of contract. Carpenter Tower is a joint venture of the Carpenters Union, Local 131, and several pension funds. McCarthy, a large company with offices around the country, has filed lawsuits against numerous subcontractors involved with the project. Mayes is not a party to that lawsuit.

DPD intends to declare the McGuire Apartments unsafe. While the building isn't currently unstable, some cables could begin failing next year, with one-third of them failing by 2019, according to an engineering report prepared for the owners. Tenants in the 272-unit building, which is encased in scaffolding, were instructed to move out as soon as possible. The building needs to be cleared by Dec. 31.

A McCarthy company representative could not be reached Tuesday. Calls to the McGuire Apartments owners' lawyer and realtor were not returned.

In a prior statement, McCarthy said its own independent structural engineers have tested the building and concluded that it is "entirely safe and that with reasonable remediation, maintenance and monitoring, long-term operations could continue."

The fiasco has prompted DPD to review records and permitting dating back to the 1990s on other high-rises of post-tensioned concrete construction.